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THE GREATNESS OF ALEISTER BLACK, WHY WWE ISN’T LIKE NEW JAPAN, DO WRESTLING REPORTERS GET WORKED AND MORE

By Dave Scherer on 2017-08-07 10:00:00

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I heard Bruce Prichard say that all of the wrestling reporters get worked by sources who only get out one side of the story.  I think he is wrong and that sites like your clearly will post something as a rumor when it's not sourced by more than one person.  Am I right?

You are indeed.  Prichard has every right to believe what he wants and maybe in the past he has fed bogus stories to people and they have been run that way, I can't say.  I have never spoken with him and have no desire to so all I can tell you is he has no idea how we do business here.  But I will say that he is wrong if he says all news sites get worked in that manner.  We surely don't.  To be fair though, we do get people who present us with part of a story, often to get their side out.  It's incumbent on us to do the work to get the whole story.

Recently I was watching an interview on YouTube with Shane Douglas talking about the incident at Ultimate Jeopardy '96 where he threw Pitbull Gary Wolfe to the mat by the halo.  I read a story somewhere (which may not be true) that on the night that angle took place, Pitbull's neck had already healed, and he was only wearing the halo to continue playing up the injury.  Was this truly the case, or did Pitbull take a huge risk by being thrown down like he was?  Also, is there even any known footage of this angle aside from probably watching ECW TV episodes on the WWE Network?

Yes, Gary Wolfe’s neck had healed but the angle was so effective because it was not common knowledge that it had.  It led to great heel heat for Shane.  I am pretty sure it was released on Home Video back in the day.

I beg of you: please tell me Levesque is protecting Aleister Black and ensuring he won't be gimmicked into the second coming of Gangrel (or something) when he makes it to the main roster? That dude is so money.

I don’t see that happening as long as he is in NXT.  Levesque understands how special Black is.  Now when he gets to the main roster, under the auspices of Vince McMahon, well HHH can only protect him so much, unfortunately.

Why WWE and Vince McMahon avoid making tournaments or series of matches like the G1 Climax of the NJPW. This seems so easy for the NJPW to create rivalries, surprises, anticipation and push a wrestler up the card with the G1 Climax. This year NJPW push Zack Sabre jr to the moon, they create anticipation for the Omega/Okada rematch, they have a farewell series for Nagata, etc. WWE can put a block A on Raw, a block B on Smackdown and the winners of each blocks face off on a big PPV. By the way Matthew Macklin did a good job with his reports!

Last point first, I totally agree with you where Matthew Macklin is concerned.  He does a fantastic job.  As for tournaments, Vince shies away from them because he sees that as more of a pure sports presentation.  He wants to be a mix of sports and entertainment.  He doesn’t book the way that New Japan does.  New Japan presents their product as sport.  WWE doesn’t.

Just wondering your opinion on something.  Now everybody knows Undertaker is a no brainer for the hall of fame.  My question is, since he's been so protective of keyfabe his whole career, do you think he'll drop it for his HOF induction or do you think he'll stick with the Undertaker persona to the very end?(wich would be kind of a cool departure from the regular inductions).

I think he will be Mark Calaway that night instead of The Undertaker.  It’s such a special night and he has earned the right to say what he wants.  I think once he knows that he is done wrestling there is no reason to stay in kayfabe mode any longer.  That is my take.

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